MALAYSIA   

Police arrest eight tribespeople protesting dam

NOVEMBER 07, 2013

Police on Thursday arrested eight tribespeople blocking access to a dam which they say will displace them from their land.

Penans protested at road side infront the
 police makeshift near the Murum dam

Police arrested the eight Penans including two teenagers, took down banners and dismantled wooden barriers on the road to the remote US$1.3 billion (RM4.1 billion) Murum dam in Sarawak state, said activist Raymond Abin.

Abin, an official with the NGO, Save Sarawak's Rivers Network, said some 100 other Penans remained at the site to continue the blockade.

"The authorities find that this is the only way to deal with the people - refusing to deal with their demands," Abin told AFP. "The easy way is to arrest them in order to intimidate and threaten them."

A police official confirmed eight were in custody, but declined to comment further. Abin said the Penans were not told the reason for their arrest.

The Penans set up the blockade in September to demand RM500,000 ringgit for the loss of their land, property and livelihood.

The dam is expected to flood 245 square kilometres and cause 1,500 Penan and 80 Kenyah natives to lose their homes.

Sarawak Energy said the 944-megawatt dam began filling in late September and would be completed within 14 months.

It added that relocation of affected natives was set to be completed by year-end and insisted that displaced villagers were being compensated fairly.

The company dismissed the protest as "instigated" by activists.

The Murum dam is one of a series of hydroelectric facilities planned by the Sarawak state government as it pushes economic development in one of Malaysia's poorest states.

But the building spree in the resource-rich state along the powerful jungle rivers has been dogged by controversy.

Activists allege corruption, while natives complain it has flooded rainforests and uprooted thousands of people.

Hundreds of Malaysian tribespeople have blockaded the construction site of the nearby Baram dam.

While the Baram dam is expected to generate 1,200 megawatts of power, activists claim it will flood 400 square kilometres of rainforest and displace 20,000 tribespeople.

Sarawak's longtime chief minister Taib Mahmud has faced mounting accusations of enriching himself and cronies through a stranglehold on the state's economy, charges which he denies. 

- AFP, November 7, 2013.

Human rights groups fret over fate of protesting Penans at Murum Dam site

BY STEPHEN THEN

A police blockade being set up at the entry point into Murum Dam after more than 200 Penans staged a protest against the Murum hydro-electric dam project. - Pic by Raymond Abin

MIRI: Human rights activists are worried over the fate of some 200 Penans protesting at the Murum Dam site in interior central Sarawak who are running out of food.

Police have "cordoned off" the area near where the protesters are camping.

Representatives of Borneo Resources Institute (Brimas) and Society for Rights of Indigenous People of Sarawak (SCRIPS) were in Murum the last few days to visit the Penans but found themselves unable to enter.

Brimas state coordinator Raymond Abin and SCRIPS secretary Michael Jok went there on separate occasions and told The Star Online that they were stopped from passing through the police barricade.

Jok, a former Catholic priest turned social activist, said on Monday that he and several officials were trying to deliver food to the Penans.

"Police have set up a roadblock preventing people from entering the Murum Dam site where the Penans are protesting against a hydro-electric project.

"We went into Murum in two 4WD vehicles filled with food rations over the past week. We wanted to give the food to the Penans, who are manning the blockade day and night.

"However, the access road leading to the protest site has been barricaded by a police team at the entry point.

"We have to leave the food at the place where the police blocked the road with a makeshift barricade.

"We asked the police to help get in touch with some of the protesting Penans to come and get the food.

"They agreed to that arrangement," Jok said after he made his way out of Murum, which is about 300kms from Bintulu town.

Abin said he took pictures at the police barricade.

"I tried to pass through the police blockade but was told that nobody is allowed in unless with permission for official business.

"I heard that the protesting Penans may set up blockades at other points along the road into the Murum Dam soon.

"They may be tired and hungry but they are determined to fight for their cause even though they are facing harsh weather conditions staying in makeshift camps," he said.

The Penans are from the remaining four settlements in the Murum Valley who are protesting the move to uproot them to resettlement schemes.

So far, three groups of Penans and Kenyahs have already agreed to move out of Murum Valley to the Tegulang Resettlement Scheme.

Abin and Jok appealed to the state government to again look into the grouses of the remaining Murum Penans who have yet to agree to the relocation plan.

Murum is located some 550km south of Miri and the protests there are by the Penans.

In Ulu Baram, the protests are being staged by more than 300 natives from the Kenyah, Kayan and Penan communities against the proposed Baram Dam site located between Long Kesseh and Long Naah some 200km inland from Miri.

The Star Online Published: Tuesday November 5, 2013 MYT 9:47:00 AM 

PENANS MURUM DAM BLOCKADE STILL STAND

Penans have not left their blockades

KUCHING (Oct 28, 2012): Contrary to what has been claimed, Penans from eight villages in Sarawak's Belaga district have not dismantled their blockades on access roads to the controversial Murum dam.

Sarawak Conservation Alliance of Natural Environment (Scane) coordinator Raymond Abin, who returned to Miri today after an overnight stay at one of the two blockade sites, said that the situation remains as it is and the international community is monitoring the issue.

"Over the last two days, many of them went back to Long Luar, one of the eight villages, because an elderly man died and later an elderly woman from Long Singu also died," he said.

He said that the Penans who have gone to the two villages will return after the mourning period is over. "But there are some still left to man the blockades," Abin said.

Abin stressed that not only are world bodies watching the matter, but also concerned Malaysians and those affected by the dam projects in Sarawak.

He was commenting on Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing's statement on Saturday that 320 Penan have abandoned the blockades after their negotiations with Belaga state assemblyman Liwan Lagang.

Masing, who is also PRS president, had quoted Liwan as telling the Part Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) supreme council meeting in Sibu about the Penans leaving.

Masing, who is also the state land development minister, had also told the government that the international community was keeping tabs on how the Penans were being treated.

"We have got to handle them carefully and with fairness," he told reporters after chairing a meeting, adding that it was important that the government knows that the Penans are a reasonable people.

 

Posted on 28 October 2012 - 08:53pm

Sulok Tawienewsdesk@thesundaily.com